The end of the summer/winter has gone by really fast. Aunt Chris was in Sydney in early August and we managed to meet up for a really nice breakfast in Newtown one morning. Brent and Jules kept busy with their surf lifesaving competitions in Toronto which happened to be held at the Woodbine beaches this year. They both competed at the Provincials and Nationals and did really well!
I spent a lot of time (when I first got back from Canada) working on our wedding website with Brent- and I think it turned out pretty well. :) Brent has also been busy making the invitations and organizing the flowers and, in his spare time, he’s taking a course at Ryerson on the Canadian Healthcare System (to help him get back into school mode before he starts his masters in Australia next July).
Also, I’m sure most of you heard that Jamie is back in school now too! So instead of calling him at his office to say hello- I’m able to chat with him on msn while he is in class! :)
I’ve been keeping busy for the last month by going to see a lot of great speakers that have come to talk at the University. A few weeks ago I went to see Glenn Singleman speak at the Wilderness Medicine Society at the school. He is a University of Sydney Medicine alumnus, a doctor at the Sydney Adventist Hospital ED, a BASE jumper, and adventurer. He is also the world record holder for BASE jumping and BASE jumping in a wing suit (jumped off a 6672 metre Himalayan mountain in 2006). He’s also been on expeditions to Antartica, jumped of Mount Minto and Mount Meru and been a part of James Cameron’s deep sea Titanic expeditions. It was a really neat presentation, but can’t say that I’m any more inclined to get into BASE jumping after hearing him talk. A wing suit on the other hand… http://www.baseclimb.com/
Another great speaker who visited the school last week was Prof Ian Frazer, who is a scientist and clinician and is one of the main people responsible for developing the HPV vaccinations that are currently being introduced worldwide. He gave us a really interesting talk on “How to avoid cancer” and talked a lot about the HPV research he has done. I really think he was one of the best speakers I’ve ever seen.
It was also interesting to be in Australia during the Olympics this year. There seemed to be a lot of hype about it all (maybe because Australia does so much better or because it was winter here, so no one had anything better to do). I didn’t get to see too much of it since I don’t have a TV, but I did scope out some quiet waiting rooms in the hospital where I was able to spend some spare time watching swimming! :)
Other than that, not much else is new. I’ve been spending a lot of my time working on my honours project and helping run the North American Medical Students Association of which I am now a part of the executive. My study group (with my Canadian girls- Janice, Brooke, Heather and Amy) is also going really well and Brooke has been sharing all her U of T secrets with us … he he. We’ve recently made a lot of our study sessions into ‘girls nights’ which have been a nice break from studying and a good excuse to make some nice dinners!
Speaking of nice dinners, my friend Jad (who I worked with at the beach) recently moved to Sydney to be with his Australian girlfriend. Coincidently, they ended up moving into a place about 20 minutes (walk) away from me and had me over for an amazing dinner last week (fresh salmon from the fish market!).This past Friday (which was probably my last ‘night out’ for a while), a few of my friends and I went to see the Whitlams concert downtown at the State Theatre. They are the band that Brent and I went to see at the Opera House while he was in Sydney last September. I just love them!! And as always, they put on a great show. That is one thing I will definitely miss when I move back to Canada.
Although, I think I might also miss the weather. Our 3-month ‘winter’ is pretty much over already and we are back to beautiful, sunny, mid-20 days already (actually 31 tomorrow!). I was back in the pool swimming outside today—something I’ll never get sick of!
Well I better get back to my studying. We are learning about HRT, BPH, STIs and IVF these days. It’s pretty interesting since they are all very common issues. A LOT of our professors have been very passionate about their topics and several of them have told the women in the class (since most of us are now past the ‘ideal’ child bearing age of 24), on numerous occasions now, that we “shouldn’t be attending the lectures and instead we should be out getting pregnant”! Easy for them to say. We also learned some other interesting stats: apparently studies are now showing that babies of fathers who smoke are up to 10 times more likely to develop brain tumors in their lifetime. Eeek. Also, they say that couples who have twins are 5 times more likely to get divorced than the average couple. A bit of a sad stat- but I still think I’m super lucky to have my twin!Miss you guys. xoxo
Anyway, I did have a really great time at home and Brent and I got tons done for the wedding in January. My flight over there wasn’t the best, but at least I had something to look forward to at the end of it!
My first day home I was up early, had a great breakfast, went to the dentist, and ran some errands all before noon! I had made an appointment to go look at bridesmaid dresses at lunch that day, but none of the girls were able to come, so Brent and I went on our own. I tried on about 25 different dresses before we decided on one!
That evening, Brent took me for dinner downtown at a restaurant called Brassaii and then we went to a pretty hilarious show (The Evil Dead) afterwards. 
Unfortunately, my jetlag was catching up to me and I could barely stay awake by the end of it. Brent had also reserved a room for us at the Marriott Hotel on Bloor Street for the night! (As a surprise a few years ago, he brought me to the Marriott at Niagara Falls and I loved it, so he had planned us a mini-getaway this time.) I LOVE the beds there because they are just UNBELIEVABLY comfortable… ! But, too comfortable I guess, because I literally fell asleep 5 minutes after arriving and didn’t wake up till a few minutes before checkout time the next morning! Poor Brent. :( But at least it took care of my jetlag! :)
Thursday morning we had a really great breakfast at the hotel and then headed uptown to meet with our photographer. Things went great with him and we booked him for January 3rd! In the afternoon Brent took me to a really nice place on Avenue Road for a couples massage! The massages were great and we had a great time there.
Friday morning we were supposed to meet with the priest, but he cancelled on us, so we went downtown early to do some more invitation hunting instead. In the afternoon we headed up to Ashley’s with Norma to look into getting a gift registry there. I had never been in there before, but it is REALLY an amazing place. Everything is so nice! Brent and I had a really fun time picking out some nice china and lots of kitchen stuff. It’s too bad we won’t have a place to put it all for so many years. :( 
That evening, Mom took Brent and me back to the Hunt Club to meet with the manager and finalize things. Everything looked pretty good and we are pretty excited about it.
Saturday was my first morning to sleep in and I really needed it. In the afternoon, we went to meet the priest and set everything up with the Church. Nana, Nono, Terry’s family and the McGill guys all arrived that afternoon and we caught up a little before heading down to the Boardwalk Pub for our Engagement Party.
It was a really fun night and I was so happy that so many people were able to come. The time went so fast though and I hardly felt like I got to catch up with anyone (except maybe the McGill swimmers who stayed up with us till past 4 in the morning!). 
Sunday was a pretty relaxed day. Everyone left around noon, so Brent and I headed out as well to go hunting for more invitation supplies. We also managed to drag Jamie to Moores to find the boys some suits for the wedding.
That evening we headed up north to Mom’s cottage in Georgian Bay. Mom, Jamie, Juliann and Georgia were all able to get a couple days off work so they came up as well.
On Tuesday, Betty and Floyd and Harry and Pauline all were able to drop by the cottage for a visit. It was the day after Harry and Pauline’s 35th anniversary so we had a little cake for them even though they couldn’t stay too long. 
Betty and Floyd stayed till the evening and then took Jules and Georgia back down to the city with them. Mom, Jamie, Brent and I stayed at the cottage for another day and did some more relaxing, sailing and trampoline-ing. 
On Wednesday night, Mom headed back down to the city and Jamie, Brent and I headed to Collingwood to spend a few days at Dad and Norma’s condo.
We had a couple relaxing days there- working on invitations and hanging out by the pool. Dad and Norma came up and met us there and we were able to visit for a little bit before we headed back down to the city on Saturday morning.
On our way back into the city, we made a few little detours and found me some shoes for the wedding. Jamie and Brent were pretty hilarious trying to help me choose, but nonetheless I think I ended up with a pretty good pair and a good deal!
That afternoon Brent and I went down to the beach with our paddleboard and surfski and paddled all the way down to Ashbridges Bay to visit Jules who was lifeguarding at ‘Woodbine 6’. It was fun to be back at the beach and to see some of the people I used to work with.
I hadn’t been paddling with Brent in a few years either, so it was really fun to be back there with him. That evening Mom took us out to Quigley’s for my last dinner at home. :(
I left the next day and it was not a happy time. I thought it was going to get easier as time went on, but it actually just gets harder.
Thanks again to everyone who was able to fit me in while I was home. I miss you guys so much! :) xo (and thanks for reading!)
